The American legal system can be very confusing at times. It may seem so complex so as to dissuade you from pursing your personal injury action against the party responsible for your injury. If you are considering a lawsuit but are not sure where to start, the best first step is to contact a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible. Your injury lawyer will quickly explain that a civil lawsuit is not as confusing as it may seem. If you have ever wondered about a negligence action and all that is entailed, the following article showcases the four elements of the action of negligence. All four elements must be met for you to prevail. Hopefully this will ease your fears about commencing a lawsuit.
- Duty: The court will first seek to establish that the party who injured you had a duty towards you. The law imputes every citizen of America with the responsibility of acting reasonably prudent towards one another. The law will not protect actions which are reckless, wanton, wilfull or unreasonably dangerous. The first step in any negligence lawsuit is to determine whether the defendant had a duty to act reasonably toward you. Once it is established that he was required to conduct himself in a reasonably prudent manner, the court will then determine whether he breached this duty causing your resulting damages.
- Breach: A breach of a legal duty is any action which is contrary to what the duty requires. Here, the duty is to conduct oneself in a reasonably prudent manner. If the party who injurd you was acting contrary to this duty at the time of the accident, he will likely have breached his duty and the court will find this element satisfied. For example, everyone operating a motor vehicle (regardless of age or experience) is required to afford every other driver the duty of acting reasonably prudent while on the road. If one driver is text messaging while driving, he is likely not conforming with what is considered reasonably prudent and he will have breached this duty.
- Causation: Causation is required to connect the above duty and breach with your resulting injury. Oftentimes, causation is easily drawn because it is obvious and many witnesses can corroborate the claim that the defendant caused your injury. Other times, the defendant’s breach of his duty is proximately very far away and certain intervening forces have come into play before your resulting injury. The court has many tests to apply to determine causation. Your injury lawyer will know how to determine causation and will be able to argue on your behalf for causation so as to satisfy this requirement of a negligence action.
- Damages: If all of the above elements are satisfied but you have not been injured in any way, there will be no action for negligence. However, you wouldn’t be pursuing a personal injury action if you weren’t injured so this element will be easily and obviously met in your case. The court will require simple proof of your injuries to ensure this element is satisfied.
Now that you have been provided a mini-lesson on personal injury and negligence law, you should feel more at ease with your decision to pursue your claim. The lawsuit will not be as complex and confusing as you are probably thinking. Contact us today to get started on your case!
